Strategic Use of
Color in Marketing Materials
Market researchers have had
a field day identifying the colors
and the likely effect they have upon us. However, the effects
of color differ among different cultures, so your target audience
should be a consideration when you plan your design of any
promotional materials. For example, white is the color of death
in Chinese culture, but purple represents death in Brazil. Yellow is sacred to the Chinese, but signified sadness in Greece
and jealousy in France. In North America, green is typically
associated with jealousy. People from tropical countries
respond most favorably to warm colors, people from northern
climate prefer the cooler colors.
Basically, in North
American mainstream culture, the following
qualities are associated with color:
Red: excitement, strength,
sex, passion, speed, danger
Blue: trust, reliability, belonging, coolness
Yellow: warmth, sunshine, cheer, happiness
Orange: playfulness, warmth, vibrant
Green: nature, fresh, cool, growth, abundance
Purple: royal, spirituality, dignity
Pink: soft, sweet, nurture, security
White: pure, virginal, clean, youthful, mild
Black: sophistication, elegant, seductive, mystery
Gold: prestige, expensive
Silver: prestige, cold, scientific
Market researchers have
also determined that color affects
shopping habits. Impulse shoppers respond best to
red-orange, black and royal blue. Shoppers who plan and
stick to budgets respond best to pink, teal, light blue and
navy. Traditionalists respond to pastel - pink, rose, sky blue.
One more thing about color.
A rather high percentage of
the population is color bind. To be sure that your material
can be read by someone with color blindness, try converting
your image to black and white or grayscale.
| 1.
Take
a look at this chart to validate with an HTML or a CSS
validator, W3C has listed 16 color names that you can use: aqua,
black, blue, fuchsia, gray, green, lime, maroon, navy, olive,
purple, red, silver, teal, white, and yellow. If you want to use
other colors, you must specify their RGB or HEX value. Click
Here 2.
If you at
loss for picking out colors for your web site, spin this color
wheel.
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